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Battle of Midway
Japanese strategy aimed to lure the US forces out of Pearl Harbour and destroy them at sea -
Japan Invades Manchuria
Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan attacks US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii - this brings the US into WWII -
Battle of Bataan "death march"
American soldiers were forced to march 65 miles to prison camps by their Japanese captors. It is called the Death March because so may of the prisoners died en route. -
Bombing of Tokyo
Firebombing raid (codenamed “Operation Meetinghouse”) by the United States on the capital of Japan during the final stages of World War II, often cited as one of the most destructive acts of war in history. -
Battle of Coral Sea
Fought only by planes from aircraft carriers, helped protect Australia from Japanese invasion -
Korematsu v. United States
During World War II, Presidential Executive Order gave the military authority to exclude citizens of Japanese ancestry from areas deemed critical to national defense. A Japanese man remained in California and violated Civilian Exclusion Order. The Court sided with the government and held that the need to protect against espionage outweighed man's rights. -
Battle of Iwo Jima and Okinawa
A bloody and prolonged operation on the island of Iwo Jima in which American marines landed and defeated Japanese defenders.----------
The U.S. Army in the Pacific had been pursuing an "island-hopping" campaign, moving north from Australia towards Japan. On April 1, 1945, they invaded Okinawa, only 300 miles south of the Japanese home islands. By the time the fighting ended on June 2, 1945, the U.S. had lost 50,000 men and the Japanese 100,000. -
Hiroshima
U.S. dropped first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Called Little Boy -
Nagasaki
Japanese city in which the second atomic bomb was dropped